Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait—all those “PW” days are not set aside for teachers—particularly ES teachers—to lesson plan?! Is this what I am hearing?

At the end of next week (W, TH and F) it sounds like I’ll be fortunate to only have the time after the early dismissal to do with as I wish. That’s not the case for TH and Friday.

ES Teacher

I’m so sorry. That is RIDICULOUS. Are you doing anything worthwhile toward maintains your credentials? Required annual trainings? Or are they inventing stuff to fill the calendar?

I really thought those days were added to HELP teachers with planning, grading, etc…

Anonymous wrote:If this proposed Virginia Bill passes that eliminates weather days, mandating all weather days have to be virtual school days, will this mean all of VA schools will re-do their calendars anyways because there will be no need for built in weather days?

Msybe that's what the purple calendar is really about. And maybe that is why they want to delay voting on it.

I tell ya...seems like there is slways a sub-agenda that we sheep know nothing about until the last minute.

If this proposed Virginia Bill passes that eliminates weather days, mandating all weather days have to be virtual school days, will this mean all of VA schools will re-do their calendars anyways because there will be no need for built in weather days?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just remove all religious holidays and the O days from the calendar. If you want religious holidays, go to a private school.

It's that simple.

Bring back a rational school calendar.

Even Christmas? Christmas is a religious holiday.

Christmas isn't a school holiday.

Oh, our kids have school on Christmas? I must have missed that every year of my life.

Winter Break is a school holiday. Christmas isn't.

And you think that the Winter Break schedule is completely unrelated to Christmas?! If that's the case, why don't we have school through December and then have a 1-2 week break at the end of the second quarter.

For the last time, so what? You are not now, and never will, have Christmas not a holiday. I don't know why this is your hill to die on. It will be a long slow death.

Too many people celebrate SOME aspect of Christmas: even non-Christians. And even if it were not a holiday, those that do celebrate would be out and make a useless day for everyone else. This is just the practical effect of the holiday.

So you can keep blathering on about Christmas. But, no one is seriously listening.

It’s not my hill to die on. I don’t even particularly want to move winter break. But the people suggesting that Christmas isn’t a school holiday are complete morons and I am going to call them out.

My kids went to Jewish school last year and guess what - they were on winter break over Christmas. It's just a fact of life that basically the whole work is on holiday the week between Christmas and New Years. It's just the way it is.

I personally vote purple.

I was surprised how many school board people said they supported orange at the work session today.

It does seem like they could make some changes to the drafts before it's finalized.

They are even talking about pushing back the 2/9 vote on the calendar - WTF - do NOT do that! You are already letting us know about this upcoming summer way too late in the game. These school board reps are crazy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just remove all religious holidays and the O days from the calendar. If you want religious holidays, go to a private school.

It's that simple.

Bring back a rational school calendar.

Even Christmas? Christmas is a religious holiday.

Christmas isn't a school holiday.

Oh, our kids have school on Christmas? I must have missed that every year of my life.

Winter Break is a school holiday. Christmas isn't.

And you think that the Winter Break schedule is completely unrelated to Christmas?! If that's the case, why don't we have school through December and then have a 1-2 week break at the end of the second quarter.

For the last time, so what? You are not now, and never will, have Christmas not a holiday. I don't know why this is your hill to die on. It will be a long slow death.

Too many people celebrate SOME aspect of Christmas: even non-Christians. And even if it were not a holiday, those that do celebrate would be out and make a useless day for everyone else. This is just the practical effect of the holiday.

So you can keep blathering on about Christmas. But, no one is seriously listening.

It’s not my hill to die on. I don’t even particularly want to move winter break. But the people suggesting that Christmas isn’t a school holiday are complete morons and I am going to call them out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the SB have to adopt one of these calendars or is there a chance they can create a new version based on feedback?
I am hoping they find a way to fix the spring break issue.

You really think they listen to feedback? They don’t. If they did, they would not have built the options that they did.

But the Spring Break issue followed by those days off is problematic. Like, why?????? They need to fix that.

Did you check out the calendar for the other years? I didn't but they re-pegged spring break to easter so I don't know that it will always be that issue with the end of 3rd quarter.

Anonymous wrote:Why won't the school board admit that NOTHING happens instruction-wise after SOLs are administered, which is usually the first week of May. And then we are just doing nothing for 3-4 weeks, even after retakes. Such a waste of time, for the purpose filling out a calendar with days.

It's also frustrating that the schools essentially get locked down during SOLs - you can't use the library or other spaces, and this is frustrating when you have younger kids who don't even take the SOLs.

SOLs take the entire month of May. We have had an SOL the day before Memorial Day weekend. And we’ve had the makeups/second tries in June.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why won't the school board admit that NOTHING happens instruction-wise after SOLs are administered, which is usually the first week of May. And then we are just doing nothing for 3-4 weeks, even after retakes. Such a waste of time, for the purpose filling out a calendar with days.

It's also frustrating that the schools essentially get locked down during SOLs - you can't use the library or other spaces, and this is frustrating when you have younger kids who don't even take the SOLs.

I teach at an ES and we most certainly continue with instruction past the SOL tests.

No teacher is letting the kids sit around and cause mayhem for 5 weeks - instruction is still occurring.

Exactly. We don’t finish the entire pacing before SOLs are given, so there is always more to teach. Our administrators are pretty clear that we should have regular days and continue with our routines and instruction. Of course there are some days towards the end that are not that way, but probably not until the last three days or so. We aren’t even suppose to start packing or taking things down until the end.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why won't the school board admit that NOTHING happens instruction-wise after SOLs are administered, which is usually the first week of May. And then we are just doing nothing for 3-4 weeks, even after retakes. Such a waste of time, for the purpose filling out a calendar with days.

It's also frustrating that the schools essentially get locked down during SOLs - you can't use the library or other spaces, and this is frustrating when you have younger kids who don't even take the SOLs.

I teach at an ES and we most certainly continue with instruction past the SOL tests.

No teacher is letting the kids sit around and cause mayhem for 5 weeks - instruction is still occurring.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just remove all religious holidays and the O days from the calendar. If you want religious holidays, go to a private school.

It's that simple.

Bring back a rational school calendar.

Even Christmas? Christmas is a religious holiday.

Christmas isn't a school holiday.

Oh, our kids have school on Christmas? I must have missed that every year of my life.

Winter Break is a school holiday. Christmas isn't.

And you think that the Winter Break schedule is completely unrelated to Christmas?! If that's the case, why don't we have school through December and then have a 1-2 week break at the end of the second quarter.

For the last time, so what? You are not now, and never will, have Christmas not a holiday. I don't know why this is your hill to die on. It will be a long slow death.

Too many people celebrate SOME aspect of Christmas: even non-Christians. And even if it were not a holiday, those that do celebrate would be out and make a useless day for everyone else. This is just the practical effect of the holiday.

So you can keep blathering on about Christmas. But, no one is seriously listening.

Could they make the first and second quarters shorter and have the end of second quarter lead into Xmas break? Does it matter that much if "quarters" have an even distribution of days given they are using rolling gradebook anyway?

Don't flame me, this was my DD high schooler's suggestion,

Because some courses are a semester long. This 1st semester can’t be longer than the 2nd.

Anonymous wrote:Wait—all those “PW” days are not set aside for teachers—particularly ES teachers—to lesson plan?! Is this what I am hearing?

At the end of next week (W, TH and F) it sounds like I’ll be fortunate to only have the time after the early dismissal to do with as I wish. That’s not the case for TH and Friday.

ES Teacher

Anonymous wrote:Why won't the school board admit that NOTHING happens instruction-wise after SOLs are administered, which is usually the first week of May. And then we are just doing nothing for 3-4 weeks, even after retakes. Such a waste of time, for the purpose filling out a calendar with days.

It's also frustrating that the schools essentially get locked down during SOLs - you can't use the library or other spaces, and this is frustrating when you have younger kids who don't even take the SOLs.

You clearly don’t know the Teachers at my sons ES because they are doing a lot after SOLs. Every year, DS continues learning after the SOL. I haveno clue what school you are at but you really should be complaining to the Principal or his boss if they are not teaching anything at your kids school.

The last week of school is pretty much a waste of time, it was when I was a kid as well, I like the end of the year parties and smaller projects and fun activities that help the kids end the year. I will guess the last week in MS is different and I remember missing most of the last week of school in HS or just having time to hang out and talk with friends during the periods where I didn’t have finals.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just remove all religious holidays and the O days from the calendar. If you want religious holidays, go to a private school.

It's that simple.

Bring back a rational school calendar.

Even Christmas? Christmas is a religious holiday.

Christmas isn't a school holiday.

Oh, our kids have school on Christmas? I must have missed that every year of my life.

Winter Break is a school holiday. Christmas isn't.

And you think that the Winter Break schedule is completely unrelated to Christmas?! If that's the case, why don't we have school through December and then have a 1-2 week break at the end of the second quarter.

For the last time, so what? You are not now, and never will, have Christmas not a holiday. I don't know why this is your hill to die on. It will be a long slow death.

Too many people celebrate SOME aspect of Christmas: even non-Christians. And even if it were not a holiday, those that do celebrate would be out and make a useless day for everyone else. This is just the practical effect of the holiday.

So you can keep blathering on about Christmas. But, no one is seriously listening.

Could they make the first and second quarters shorter and have the end of second quarter lead into Xmas break? Does it matter that much if "quarters" have an even distribution of days given they are using rolling gradebook anyway?

Don't flame me, this was my DD high schooler's suggestion,

Anonymous wrote:Why won't the school board admit that NOTHING happens instruction-wise after SOLs are administered, which is usually the first week of May. And then we are just doing nothing for 3-4 weeks, even after retakes. Such a waste of time, for the purpose filling out a calendar with days.

It's also frustrating that the schools essentially get locked down during SOLs - you can't use the library or other spaces, and this is frustrating when you have younger kids who don't even take the SOLs.

I teach at an ES and we most certainly continue with instruction past the SOL tests.